The Royal Navy and Marines remind us why we used to care:
Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.
In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.
By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as “compliant”.
Nothing like a whiff of cordite to ensure compliance.
Update: This doesn’t suck either -
The American businessman lay shackled in a mud hut 8,000 feet up a remote mountain in Afghanistan, armed captors posted inside and outside to prevent any escape attempt.
Earlier in his captivity, he had made a run for it, but — barefoot and much older than the insurgents who held him — he was snatched back before he could get far.
After nearly two months in captivity and out of contact with anyone who cared about him, the hostage reviewed what his fate might hold — whether ransom negotiations or rescue efforts or a miracle might bring him freedom.
As night fell Oct. 14, three Chinook helicopters flew into the mountains and inserted roughly 24 to 30 special operators — most of them Navy SEALs — about three miles from the kidnappers’ hideout to minimize the chance of being seen or heard…
There they established an objective rally point — typically, the site where a spec ops force stows unnecessary gear and puts security teams out while those making the final approach to the target transform into “pure assault mode,” said a source familiar with such missions…
“They knew who was who,” the engineer said. the SEALs quickly demonstrated that, aiming their silencer-equipped weapons to shoot and kill the kidnapper in the room before he could fire a round.
Hoo-yah.
Should sink their boats and let them (surviving pirates) swim back to shore…
I wasn’t thinking as kind thoughts as AWC N. I thought they should hang the rest of them and then post their heads on pikes at all the ports as a statement to the rest of the pirates. Call me old fashioned…or a Celt.
Having seen the sharks cruising the Indian O, it’d be about the same result. But Bou’s idea might make more impact.
Well done to our RN friends, and to our own Special Operators as well…. and thanks also to the non-special folks who help make their success possible.
Stories like this are positive reinforcements of who we are, what we stand for, and just how darned good our military personnel are. They make me feel a lot better than the constant drumbeat of negatives that the news generally gives us. Congrats to everyone involved. And to the Brits: Fantastic. More please. Soon.
AWC N, oh my bad! I didn’t now about the sharks. I am still all about discouraging others, something my boys picked up. My husband was killing squirrels off my birdfeeder in our backyard and I heard one of my boys say, ‘We need to put their heads on little pikes to discourage their friends’ and I thought, “Is that the Celt in you or the Italian?”
As for the rescue, Lex, I meant to comment, what an amazing story. Holy cow. I wish that made the front page of every newspaper…
I think both episodes show a very effective way of “negotiating without preconditions”. We explained very clearly what we wanted and the bad guys complied.
Wonder if our President-elect will use this time-tested method.
The Drudge Report has a great headline to link to the story about the Royal Navy….
Pirates fire on warship…die
Cause and effect made simple
Hey very good weblog!! Man .. Stunning .. Wonderful .. I will bookmark your weblog and take the feeds also…